Track–In–A–Box Bound for Namibia

Last spring, Mark Cassayre—a U.S. national living and working in Namibia—contacted On Track with a proposition we couldn’t refuse, and neither could some of our customers and vendors.

It turns out that Mark—a friend and former teammate of On Track webmaster Kimo Morris—had become acquainted with Namibian Olympic Medalist Frank Fredericks. “Frankie” is still very involved in track, and has established his own foundation to help fund the development of athletics in his homeland. As a former decathlete who competed at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Mark was as enthusiastic as ever about the sport, and eager to share what he knew with the young local athletes. With Frankie’s support, Mark went into action. Money being tight, and equipment being rare in such an impoverished country, Mark appealed to On Track for whatever help we could lend toward outfitting Namibia’s developing youth track program. Through a combination of funding provided through Frankie’s foundation, and donations of equipment and supplies from On Track, our vendors and customers, a shipping container is headed for Namibia, due to deliver its cargo of implements, apparel and landing pits in January

Thanks go out to UCSB, Brigham Young University, Edison High School (Huntington Beach, CA), Bill Legge of Hind Team Sports and Steve Boyer of Cramer Products and Augusta Sportswear for their contributions to this very worthy effort—spreading the fellowship of track and field around the globe!